“To tell anybody of their faults with a design that they should mend them is certainly the highest art of friendship; to tell them that others may avoid them is a just end of criticising; but to do it only to lessen one man's reputation, without any design of bettering another's, is what is properly called malice.”

Distinguishing friendly correction from criticism meant only to diminish · Letter to John Dryden, about 1691

• Criticism
• Friendship
• Honesty

“They ought to be smooth, clear, tender, and passionate. The thoughts may be bold, more gay, and more elevated than in pastoral.”

His standard for the love elegy, as against the simpler pastoral · Preface to Letters and Poems, Amorous and Gallant, 1692

• Love
• Poetry
• Style

“If the end of wit be not to render oneself agreeable, I shall scarce envy them any other use they can make of it.”

Setting sociability, not display, as the proper use of wit · Preface to Letters and Poems, Amorous and Gallant, 1692

• Conversation
• Courtesy
• Wit